Working in prisons can be a challenging job, managing a population of incarcerated people while keeping oneself, one’s colleagues, and the people themselves safe. Some corrections officers may expect violence in the workplace, yet being a victim of violence is no trivial experience. In prison, violent incidents are categorized according to the severity of the violence perpetrated. However, we do not know how characteristics of a violent incident may contribute to the severity of violence perpetrated toward corrections staff. To begin to address this gap, we examined characteristics of physical assault incidents in New Zealand prisons between 2016 and 2020, in which the perpetrator of the incident was a male prisoner and the victim was a corrections officer. We examined the prediction of incidents across three levels of severity using individual and environmental characteristics. Perpetrators of serious violence tended to be already segregated from the general population at the time of the assault. We also found that perpetrators of assault against staff were different from the general prison population: prisoners who assaulted staff were more likely to be younger, gang affiliated, and had higher security classifications compared to prisoners who did not assault staff. Research suggests that characteristics of perpetrators can contribute to their risk of perpetrating violence; we found that characteristics of perpetrators (i.e., being segregated) can also contribute to the severity of violence perpetrated. Furthermore, we offer a direct comparison between prisoners who assaulted staff and prisoners who did not, therefore cementing research that prisoners who assaulted staff are different from the rest of the prison population.

中文翻译：

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使用个人和环境特征预测针对惩教人员的三个严重程度级别的人身暴力


在监狱工作可能是一项具有挑战性的工作，既要管理大量被监禁者，又要保证自己、同事和人们自己的安全。一些惩教人员可能会预料到工作场所会发生暴力，但成为暴力的受害者并非易事。在监狱中，暴力事件根据所实施暴力的严重程度进行分类。然而，我们不知道暴力事件的特征如何导致对惩教人员实施的暴力行为的严重性。为了开始解决这一差距，我们研究了 2016 年至 2020 年间新西兰监狱人身攻击事件的特征，其中事件的肇事者是男性囚犯，受害者是惩教人员。我们使用个人和环境特征检查了三个严重性级别的事件预测。严重暴力的肇事者往往在袭击发生时已经与普通民众隔离开来。我们还发现，袭击工作人员的肇事者与一般监狱人口不同：与没有袭击工作人员的囚犯相比，袭击工作人员的囚犯更有可能更年轻、隶属于帮派，并且具有更高的安全分类。研究表明，肇事者的特征会增加他们实施暴力的风险;我们发现，肇事者的特征（即被隔离）也会导致所实施的暴力行为的严重性。此外，我们在袭击工作人员的囚犯和没有袭击工作人员的囚犯之间进行了直接比较，因此巩固了袭击工作人员的囚犯与其他监狱人口不同的研究。